Crying
by The Genius Mage
Summary: Epros hears Linda crying and decides to investigate. Slight EprosxLinda. Part of my Holiday Hazards Okage series.


Crying

_**So this might be the first of a Okage mini-series, it depends.**_

It was nearing the winter holidays, and everyone was at Ari's house for a week or two, since they had been invited.

Epros hadn't been sure why exactly he decided to come for the holidays. Wait, scratch that, he was. He was entirely sure why he had come, Linda had basically dragged him here. When the pair had arrived, after ditching the circus for the time being, they were rewarded with the sight of Stan trying to pry some old boards off of a door in Ari's home. Once the door had been released from its wooden bindings, a whole new hallway had emerged, lined with rooms enough for those without rooms to get one. After the rooms had been sufficiently tidied up, the others moved into their guest rooms.

This had taken the entire day, and now Epros was glad to rest. It had been a great surprise to see that Marlene was indeed alive, just as Ari's letters had said. All was going well, he supposed.

Then, he heard it.

A sort of muffled, high pitched sound. Puzzled, the Former Phantom Evil King plucked his clock from the bedside table and studied it.

1:07. In the morning.

He studied the noise for a while, then decided on what it could be. He compared it to his immense database of knowledge, and the conclusion was obvious. Someone was crying. And judging by the position, the farthest from his room, he knew who it was.

Linda.

He toyed with the idea of just letting her cry, but his conscience, (darn the thing), wouldn't let him. He exited his room quietly, closing the door behind him, his eyes cutting through the dark hallway. He approached Linda's door and leaned forward, listening.

Yeah, that was her all right. He grimaced and gave three light musical taps on the door.

There was a pause in the crying, then a sort of strangled squeak.

"Linda?" Epros asked. He loved to rhyme, of course, but he never babbled on incessantly. If a word could get it done he wasn't going to waste two sentences on a proper rhyme.

Her voice cut through his thoughts, she sounded startled. "E-Epros! Ah...um...Wait a moment!"

He rolled his eyes and waited for thirty seconds. When she gave him permission to enter he turned the knob and stuck his head in, he couldn't help but grin slightly at her desperate expression, her fingers were combing through her hair, sliding around her horns.

"Eppy, what are you doing here?"

Epros grimaced slightly. "Yonder crying disturbed me in the night, pray tell Linda, what gave thee quite a fright?"

"N-nothing." She started crying again, burying her face in her palms. Epros sighed, tapped his fingers on the wood, then entered her room and sat beside her on the bed. He very gently wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"Crying for no reason? This is unheard of among men." He said in confusion.

"Well..you know...at dinner today, Ari's whole family...and then..." She said almost incoherently. "Y'know...she said I sing bad...I was really trying my hardest, doing what Coach said, but...the lyrics were bad too she said..."

Oh. That. At dinner earlier Annie, Ari's little sister, had started telling Linda off for her bad singing. He remembered.

Bad thing was, no one disagreed with her, but Rosalyn thought she could have said it nicer.

"What did 'Coach' say to do? Is he the one who taught singing to you?"

If he was, he needed to be strangled.

"N-no. I wanted to sing since I was little, but Coach...er...King Stan, he told me how to sing properly, and that my lyrics were bad. I was singing from the heart, but he said to use words like 'darkness' and 'conquest', and since he's an evil king, he has to be right, right?" She looked at him, one eye peeping out from between two fingers.

Epros rolled his eyes, thinking about how Stan probably couldn't sing much better than she could.

"Singing comes from deep within, letting others tell you how is almost a sin." Epros said at last. Linda straightened up, pulling her hands from her face.

"You think so?"

"'His Majesty' needs to learn, what you want you have to earn. Don't let him try to 'teach' you how, what you want you earn now."

"Thanks, Eppy." Linda smiled, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

With a reluctance that puzzled him, he stopped his hug and stood up, heading for the door. He paused, hand on the handle.

"Please, kindly refrain from calling me 'Eppy'. My name is refined, not short and peppy."

"Sure thing Epp-I mean, Epros." She said.

"Do not cry, for I fear I may too. Seeing you cry, I wish to cry with you. See you tomorrow, wherever, when. See you quite soon, see you then."

He was about to close the door when Linda giggled and said to him, "It makes you want to cry when I do? You do care." She said in a teasing tone.

Epros said nothing, just smiled back and closed the door.


End file.
